Movie review: Tired, old heist genre takes down Takers’

Wednesday

Sep 22, 2010 at 12:01 AMSep 22, 2010 at 10:16 PM

The film isn’t terrible; it’s just not terribly original. It feels like the same old cops-and-robbers story with a hard-nosed, hard-working cop (Matt Dillon) always a step behind the smart and flashy bad guys.

Meg Quinn-DeBoer

"Takers"

Rated PG-13, 107 Minutes

Starring: Idris Elba, Paul Walker, Matt Dillon

Meg’s rating: For 'heist movie' fans only

Idris Elba is tall, dark and handsome, just like a movie star is supposed to be. He also happens to be very polite. At the roundtable interview I attended with four other journalists, he introduced himself — when clearly no introduction was necessary — and shook each of our hands before sitting down. Unfortunately, I run the risk of being impolite in return by not loving his new film, “Takers.”

The film isn’t terrible; it’s just not terribly original. It feels like the same old cops-and-robbers story with a hard-nosed, hard-working cop (Matt Dillon) always a step behind the smart and flashy bad guys.

“Takers” tells the tale of five men, two of whom are brothers, who execute flawless and lucrative bank heists. We learn that their crew used to include one more, Ghost, but he got caught during one of their jobs and has been in jail for the past several years. Oddly, none of them suspect that Ghost can’t be trusted, so they agree to join him on another job — involving an armored car — just days after he is released from prison. It’s easy to see where the story is headed. And that’s part of the problem. “Takers” fails to take an old genre into new territory.

But originality is not what drew Elba to the script. He explained, “I love heist films like ‘The Italian Job’ and I wanted to be a part of one. This script was a good read and I knew John Luessenhop [the director] was passionate about it. I think he really just wanted to make a cooler, younger ‘Heat.’”

The thieves in “Takers” are definitely cool and young, and on top of that, they’re incredibly stylish. They’ve got sexy rides and sport dapper wardrobes, in a nod to Frank Sinatra’s Rat Pack. Elba admits that the costumes play a big part in character development. He said the first thing he does when he signs on to a film is “speak to the director, speak to the writer, and then speak to the costume designer. Because that’s how I define who this person is. It’s when I put the clothes on that I figure out where he is emotionally.”

Elba’s character, Gordon, is one of the leaders of the pack. He and John (Paul Walker) are the alpha males who make the big decisions. When I asked about bonding off-screen with Walker, Elba insists that no bonding was necessary. He explained, “Paul and I got along pretty well. We had an odd chemistry that worked, but off-screen I never saw that guy. He was always off on a surfboard somewhere!”

Elba also enjoyed screen time with Marianne Jean-Baptiste as Naomi, his troubled, drug-addicted sister who needs rescuing right in the middle of planning his biggest score. He approached the actress and personally convinced her to do the film. Of the experience he said, “Working with Marianne was a blessing.” The relationship between Gordon and Naomi was an essential selling point for Elba. “I really wanted that storyline to be an anchor for my character. Otherwise there’s not much to hold onto. There had to be a reason why he was doing it all and why he was trying to get out.”

Elba cites the tangled personal lives and tragic back-stories of the criminals as the element of “Takers” that does set it apart from other heist films.

Unfortunately, I must respectfully disagree. After all, just because I’m not crazy about this movie, it doesn’t mean I can’t be polite about it.